TURA: The Anti Corruption and Human Development Organization (ACHDO) has submitted a memorandum to Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways, Nitin Gadkari seeking his immediate intervention for upgradation and repair of the dilapidated portion of the AMPT Road in West Garo Hills.
The road in question is the 10 KM stretch (41 km-51 km) from Chibinang to Phulbari in West Garo Hills which comes under the proposed NH-127B project.
Informing that the road is a major lifeline for the people of the plain belt areas and is also used by the people of both Meghalaya and Assam, the organizations rued that the portion has been left unrepaired for many years.
“After a gap of many years, the major portion of the same road has been repaired. But unfortunately, the stretch from Chibinang to Phulbari has been neglected and left unrepaired for reasons best known to the concerned department,” it said.
The organization said that many other organizations from the region had earlier also demanded the repair of the same road on several occasions but the same had been ignored by the concerned department. It also claimed that there were earlier reports in the social media that the repair of the road has been sanctioned under the proposed NH-127B project and lamented the fact no work has been started till now.
“We can understand that it takes time but speedy construction needs to be taken up if the road has already been sanctioned as the same route is being used for international business like stone export from Bhutan to Bangladesh,” the organization stated.
It urged the minister to take necessary steps to direct the concerned department to initiate quality repair immediately on the said portion of the road to ease the problems being faced by commuters.
Besides the repair of the 10 km stretch, the organization also urged Gadkari to facilitate the up-gradation of the AMPT road from Agia in Assam to Tura via Tikrikilla, Phulbari, Rajabala and Garobadha as a National Highway which currently comes under North Eastern Council (NEC).